As VP of Strategy, Planning & Programs for Cisco’s Global Partner Organization, Marc Surplus is responsible for developing and executing channel strategies and partner programs across all routes to market in Cisco’s connected partner ecosystem, which accounts for more than 90% of revenue.
Channel Marketing Journal caught up with Marc last month at Cisco Partner Summit. The focus of our conversation was how to support partners looking for their value add, or as Marc says, the “secret sauce” to helping customers digitally transform.
The Cisco strategy is to support all partner approaches — whether it’s seeking out partner-to-partner alliances or application programming. But in a market shifting towards solutions and business outcomes, partners are increasingly looking at building on the Cisco platform.
“The power of the network is so vast,” Marc tells Channel Marketing Journal. “Our technology, our platform and our API are the foundation of digital transformation.”
Watch this video for highlights of our conversation. You’ll hear about Cisco’s latest channel enablement program, and on a fun note, why Marc associates the channel ecosystem with the “badlands,” Bruce Springsteen sings about in his song of the same title.
